Contextual Resources

Role play prompts for higher beginners (could be amended for E1). 

Volunteering for a green space community charity.

Editor's note

Another great set of role play prompts from Jenny. Visit her page to find further sets.

Three sets of dominoes to use in warm-up and for letter and word recognition activities. The first set, for pre-Entry ESOL and Literacy learners with very low levels of letter and word recognition, matches lower case to capital letter versions, the second set is a set of “doubles”, which can be used alongside the first. The third set, for pre-Entry / Entry 1 ESOL learners, matches a category to an example. Each set has 17 dominoes, so 4 each for a group of 4 learners, plus one to start.

This is a series of short job ads for a hotel (+ one for a school caretaker). Simple language and uncluttered layout..
Good for introduction to language of employment. I have used these with E1 to E3 and they work well as a differentiated resource

Higher levels can gauge implict information, especially for the school caretaker advert in writing covering application letters to include attributes such as working with children, being trustworthy and reliable etc)

Photos and pictures to match with accounts of real emergency situations. All in the present tense. All the accounts are true. Accounts can be cut in to strips and given to pairs of learners who can put them in to a sequence to tell a story. Leads to discussion on how we tell a story, and how we sequence sentences to make sense.
Lots of new, real life vocabulary to provoke discussion.
Some stories shorter and simpler than others to allow for differentiation in group.

A really interesting quick quiz – originally written to get e2e learners interested in numbers but makes an ideal warm up activity for any group (at any level).

This wonderful pack of differentiated resources is ideal for mixed ability classes from Entry 1 through to Level 2. It takes the learner through:

• the layout of formal and informal letters
• formal and informal language
• typical vocabulary for formal letters
• sentences and paragraphs
• writing a range of letters
• revision and/or assessment exercises

Includes writing prompts, task sheets, matching /sorting cards, and a many cut and stick exercises.

Fully mapped to the Functional English writing criteria.

Makes a great introduction to form filling and is ideal for group, team or individual work. 56 questions.

A short but very useful PPT that is bound to stimulate much discussion about the different ways we communicate.

Match the words used on forms to their meanings (laminate to make a great re-usable game) and then practise your skills on the example forms.

27 pictures of different jobs and matching word cards – plus lots of teaching ideas for Entry 1 and 2 literacy and ESOL classes.